The present invention relates to vending machines for supplying hot, cooked food. Vending machines for dispensing hot foods include a refrigerated storage compartment for uncooked, or at least partially cooked, food in individual containers, an oven, which for speed in heating usually is of the microwave type, means for retrieving containers of selected foods from the refrigerated storage compartment, placing them in the oven, removing them from the oven when cooked or reheated and dispensing the cooked or reheated meals, still in the containers. Usually there is included also means for dispensing condiments appropriate to any selected meal. The present invention relates specifically to a mechanism for retrieving the containers of food from the food storage compartment of a hot food vending machine.
Specifications EP O 437 344, EP 0 592 255 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,387 disclose hot food vending machines in which portions of food are held in plastic containers within cardboard sleeves. The containers and sleeves are stored in stacks in a refrigerated compartment from the top of which a selected container is removed vertically via a hole in a selector plate. The selected food container is placed on a conveyor and transported to a loading station at which the container is loaded into an oven by means of a ram which passes through the sleeve and is then withdrawn. After the food cooking cycle has been completed, the hot food container is withdrawn from the oven by a rake which also causes the food container to re-enter the sleeve before being conveyed to a dispensing station.
Specification U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,387 discloses a hot food vending machine which, among other features, includes a refrigerated compartment for the storage of pre-packed food to be dispensed by the machine. In the refrigerated compartment there is a number of vertical stacks for food containers. Across the top of the food container stacks there is an apertured and a mechanism for removing a selected food container from the refrigerated compartment and delivering it to an oven for cooking or heating. Each of the vertical stacks for food containers includes a mechanically operated mechanism which raises a container of a selected food to the level of the apertured plate whence it is picked up by a transfer mechanism and moved to a cooking point. The whole mechanism is cumbersome and complicated, involving as it does, chain drives, lead screw drives and pneumatic mechanisms. Moreover, there is a tendency for the food containers to be stuck together by ice, which has to be overcome by the container picker and transfer mechanism.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for removing food containers from a refrigerated storage compartment forming part of an automatic hot food vending machine.
According to the present invention there is provided an apparatus for selectively removing packaged foodstuffs from a refrigerated storage compartment forming part of an automatic hot food vending machine, comprising a carousel having a plurality of compartments for food containers, a rotatable selector plate forming the bottom of the carousel, a door in the selector plate of a size sufficient to allow the passage of a food container therethrough, means responsive to a customer operated food selector to rotate the selector plate to a position such that the door in the selector plate is located within a compartment of the carousel containing that food, means for opening the door in the selector plate when it is in an appropriate position so as to permit a food container filled with that food to pass through the door in the selector plate into a receptacle for conveyance to a delivery hatch also in the refrigerated compartment.
Preferably, there is included an elevator table adapted to receive the food container and lower it through a delivery hatch in the bottom of the refrigerated storage compartment in which the carousel is situated and the selector plate includes an insulated portion which, after the elevator table has been lowered to remove the food container from the refrigerated storage compartment, is positioned to cover the delivery hatch in the bottom of the refrigerated storage compartment.